MBI business incubator boasts a high success rate

Sunday

Oct 28, 2012 at 6:00 AM

By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT

EpigenDX, a startup biotech company, recently moved out of the business incubator space provided by Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives.

Company leaders found that MBI had all of the equipment, safety procedures and facilities support they needed so the company could focus on the science, instead of the business, and the company outgrew the space.

Li Ying Yan, president of EpigenDX, said the company is a contract researcher for the pharmaceutical industry, working with companies, government agencies and epidemic labs. The company is also involved in research and development for cancer biomarker discovery.

“The access they gave us to the equipment really helped us,” Ms. Yan said. “It meant we did not have to buy the freezers and the autoclaves and the other equipment we needed when we were getting started.”

EpigenDX, which was located at MBI’s facility on Barber Avenue in Worcester for nearly five years, moved to its new location in Hopkinton in May.

“We’re still a small company,” Ms. Yan said. “But our annual revenues are approaching $1 million and we have eight employees. It was time to move.”

Ms. Yan said MBI also assisted her company with safety training, and still provides facilities support.

For 10 years, MBI has been working in the city to provide the life sciences industry with the resources needed to develop new biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

MBI offers laboratory space, access to shared equipment, assistance with compliance and permitting, and plan development and consulting services to its client companies, who are in MBI’s locations at Gateway Park, 55 Union St. and 100 Barber Ave.

While giving these startups the services they need to launch their businesses, MBI is also benefiting the local economy; 500 new jobs have been created, producing an economic impact of more than $9.3 million each year.

This year has been a successful one for MBI, with 10 new client startups joining and four companies “graduating” to expanded facilities, including Blue Sky BioServices, which continues to operate in Worcester.

Other 2012 graduates include Attogen Inc. in Beverly and Biofluent Labs Inc., which has joined with Nemucore Medical Innovations, also in Worcester.

A total of 59 companies have graduated from MBI’s facilities in the last 10 years, and 44 are still in business five years after graduation. MBI’s client success rate, which counts those companies that have remained in business for five years after leaving MBI, has grown steadily, from 69 percent in 2009 to 72 percent in 2010 and 75 percent in 2011. The 75 percent retention rate is significantly higher than the industry average of 56 percent.

“When we started this our goal was the industry average, or about 50 percent,” said Kevin O’Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of MBI. “But when we sign on with a client, we require a business plan, one year of funding and a one-year lease.

“We play tough economic love up front,” he said.

That pre-screening of clients contributes to their long-term success, Mr. O’Sullivan said. He emphasized that the clients’ success is their own.

“Eighty-five percent of our clients are coming out of the private sector, and they are focused on the market,” he said. “We’re the tool, but the companies are the ones that deserve the credit.”

Mr. O’Sullivan said the collaboration MBI has with the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton as well as other area colleges has also contributed to his clients’ success.

MBI has 21 tenant-clients at its facilities; those clients have nearly 70 employees.

Three new clients have recently come on board: cideKicks medicine, VitaThreads and Woodland Pharmaceuticals. Mr. O’Sullivan said that cideKicks works to provide pharmaceutical compounds for companies and that Woodland is also part of the pharmaceutical support system. VitaThreads makes biopolymer threads and sutures that will be used to treat sports injuries and heart attacks.